Civil servant stole £1m from Government to buy a luxury flat

A Department for Education manager who defrauded the Government of more than £1m to buy a luxury flat has been jailed after he was turned in by his mother.

Edward Chapman, 37, pocketed the cash initially in order to buy himself a flat in Rochester, Kent, before upgrading to a £850,000 home in Wandsworth, London.

He set up fake swimming-related "shell companies" to help himself to left-over funds from the department. Rather than living a life of "extravagant holidays" his other purchases were limited to smaller items including a "nice desk".

His girlfriend noticed unusual payments to his bank account and alerted his mother, a deputy director at the Department for Education.

It is really quite hard to understand why a man in your position with your advantages would have done thisJudge Andrew Goymer

Chapman was jailed for three years and four months at Southwark Crown Court after admitting his crimes once his mother turned him in.

Judge Andrew Goymer told him: "There can be few tasks more disagreeable for any judge than to have to sentence a man of your character for an offence such as this.

"What you committed was not just fraud it was a very gross breach of the trust that had been imposed in you by the department.

"Not only did you commit fraud on a major scale in breach of trust, indeed you helped yourself to over a million pounds of money to which you were not entitled.

"It is really quite hard to understand why a man in your position with your advantages would have done this."